Non-EAs are receptive to a proposal to substitute bivalves for other meat. They are not receptive to proposals to go vegetarian/vegan. Bivalves are also healthier than plant-based meat. Therefore, bivalves are the most effective way to reduce overall animal suffering.
I interpret the linked post about receptivity to proposals to go vegetarian/vegan as providing evidence that people are receptive to these proposals. It states:
However, polls suggest that the percentage of the population that’s vegetarian has stayed basically flat since 1999. In short, we’re basically treading water: for every new vegetarian we convince, someone else quits. As you’d expect given this fact, more than four-fifths of vegans and vegetarians eventually abandon their diets.
If the number of vegetarians is flat, yet people are abandoning the diet, this requires a constant inflow of new vegetarians to balance the outflow. The whole point of the post is that people are receptive to trying a vegetarian diet out, but that they struggle to maintain it long-term.
The claim in this post that “non-EAs are receptive to a proposal to substitute bivalves for other meat” does not provide any evidence in favor of the assertion, which might just be a missing link.
I think it’s important to make this claim about receptivity to bivalve/meat substitutions more specific. Is this population of non-EAs members of the general public? What countries do they live in? How often, and how much, and for what kinds of meat would they consider bivalves an acceptable substitute? Will they pay more to substitute bivalves for other meats on a pound-for-pound basis, and if so, how much more?
Personally, I enjoy the taste of scallops, oysters, mussels, clams more than the meats like beef, pork, chicken. I believe that most consumers would have the same palate, except for a few countries like the United States that have idiosyncratic food preferences.
Shellfish consumption tends to be aggregated with seafood consumption in general, but the USA consumes a moderate amount of seafood relative to other countries. It’s not clear to me what you mean by the USA having “idiosyncratic food preferences.” I was only able to find this data on American oyster consumption specifically. While low, I think this is better explained by a combination of the high cost of oysters and the fact that America has a great deal of non-coastal land a long tradition of ranching, and excellent farmland, making cheap, high-quality meat widely available to the population.
I suspect that meat freezes and ships much better than shellfish. I have no reticence about eating a steak from a cow slaughtered 2,000 miles away, but I think of “Midwestern sushi” as a rare example when combining a location name with a food name (i.e. “Washington cherries,” “Argentinian french fries,” “French pastry”) as making the food sound worse rather than better.
I would want to see a deeper investigation into the tractability of upscaling shellfish aquaculture, a stronger argument on the market failure explanation for why normal market mechanisms are inadequate to motivate increased production, and better information on people’s receptivity to bivalves as a meat substitute.
That said, I love oysters, and if we can altruistically make them cheap enough that I can eat them on the daily, that alone will make the EA movement a success as far as I am concerned.
I interpret the linked post about receptivity to proposals to go vegetarian/vegan as providing evidence that people are receptive to these proposals. It states:
If the number of vegetarians is flat, yet people are abandoning the diet, this requires a constant inflow of new vegetarians to balance the outflow. The whole point of the post is that people are receptive to trying a vegetarian diet out, but that they struggle to maintain it long-term.
The claim in this post that “non-EAs are receptive to a proposal to substitute bivalves for other meat” does not provide any evidence in favor of the assertion, which might just be a missing link.
I think it’s important to make this claim about receptivity to bivalve/meat substitutions more specific. Is this population of non-EAs members of the general public? What countries do they live in? How often, and how much, and for what kinds of meat would they consider bivalves an acceptable substitute? Will they pay more to substitute bivalves for other meats on a pound-for-pound basis, and if so, how much more?
Shellfish consumption tends to be aggregated with seafood consumption in general, but the USA consumes a moderate amount of seafood relative to other countries. It’s not clear to me what you mean by the USA having “idiosyncratic food preferences.” I was only able to find this data on American oyster consumption specifically. While low, I think this is better explained by a combination of the high cost of oysters and the fact that America has a great deal of non-coastal land a long tradition of ranching, and excellent farmland, making cheap, high-quality meat widely available to the population.
I suspect that meat freezes and ships much better than shellfish. I have no reticence about eating a steak from a cow slaughtered 2,000 miles away, but I think of “Midwestern sushi” as a rare example when combining a location name with a food name (i.e. “Washington cherries,” “Argentinian french fries,” “French pastry”) as making the food sound worse rather than better.
I would want to see a deeper investigation into the tractability of upscaling shellfish aquaculture, a stronger argument on the market failure explanation for why normal market mechanisms are inadequate to motivate increased production, and better information on people’s receptivity to bivalves as a meat substitute.
That said, I love oysters, and if we can altruistically make them cheap enough that I can eat them on the daily, that alone will make the EA movement a success as far as I am concerned.